shrimp newbie.

levy · Post by **levy** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:54 am

Hello all! I am new to this forum, and would like to apologise for my grammar because I-m not english.
I recently recieved from a friend 8 shrimps, but he recieved them too and we don't know the species. They are about 1-2 cm long, and only one, the bigger one has turned a redish colour, and is the biggest. After searching the web I came to think that it is an Red Cherry Shrimp. The rest are about half her size, and are translucent, white-grayish verry much like glass shrimp. I will try to take some pictures when I'll have a camera.
I thought they were the same species, or is it possible that they are, but the little ones take a little longer to get coloured up? Also I discoverd recently that the bigger, redish shrimp is holding yellow eggs under her belly. Is it possible she would have eggs if she is the only one of the species in the tank, or is it possible that shrimps could cross-breed???
What should I do to have them breed for me? The shrimps are in a 20 gallon, medium planted tank, with 2 corys and 10 neon tetras.
Thanks!

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:30 am

first of all
cory and tetra will most probably eat any shrimplet , so if you want to breed shrimp , forget about fish in there tank.

here is a good link to start with : http://www.petshrimp.com/shrimpspecies.html

levy · Post by **levy** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:39 pm

zapisto wrote:first of all
cory and tetra will most probably eat any shrimplet , so if you want to breed shrimp , forget about fish in there tank.

I thought so to

. I'm wondering, would a 4 gallon little tank be suitable for breeding shrimps?
I saw the link you are refering to, that's where I saw that at least one of my shrimp is a Red Cheery

. I'm not sure about the rest, dough.
Cheers!

Kenshin · Post by **Kenshin** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:00 pm

In my experiences, 4 or 5 gallon is very hard to breed since the water parameters change very easily. Frequent water changes are more necessary instead of the 10 or 20 gallon tanks. So far I did not manage to breed shrimps in 5 gallon tanks but I do have some that have died (especially the young ones) during this process. Of course, I do not change my water until once every 2 or 3 weeks (25% - 40% water change each time). However, after I relocate the shrimps back into a 20g tank, they are all happy again (bright and red in color compare to dull red in the 5 gallon tank) and ready to breed already.
My friend on the other hand have a different experiences. He had a lot of success in it since he has a REALLY HEAVILY planted tank with 50% water change once a week in a 5 gallon tank and he has managed to breed Red Cherry shrimps really well so far. So it is going to be how you want to manage the tanks and the amount of care you want to invest in it. Hope this helps.

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:12 pm

Kenshin wrote:In my experiences, 4 or 5 gallon is very hard to breed since the water parameters change very easily. Frequent water changes are more necessary instead of the 10 or 20 gallon tanks. So far I did not manage to breed shrimps in 5 gallon tanks but I do have some that have died (especially the young ones) during this process. Of course, I do not change my water until once every 2 or 3 weeks (25% - 40% water change each time). However, after I relocate the shrimps back into a 20g tank, they are all happy again (bright and red in color compare to dull red in the 5 gallon tank) and ready to breed already.
My friend on the other hand have a different experiences. He had a lot of success in it since he has a REALLY HEAVILY planted tank with 50% water change once a week in a 5 gallon tank and he has managed to breed Red Cherry shrimps really well so far. So it is going to be how you want to manage the tanks and the amount of care you want to invest in it. Hope this helps.

i breed actually cherry in 5
you just have to be strict

levy · Post by **levy** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:33 am

OK, so I will look for a bigger tank.
Another question: How many days does it take for the eggs to develop???

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:17 am

Do yourself a favor and get at least a 10 gallon tank, 20 if you have room. Once you get the shrimp bug you'll need the room anyway.

Once you get the water parameters right you will see sadles that grow for 3 weeks to a month, then the eggs end up by some sort of magic on their swimmerlets and remain their for 3 weeks or so, then hatch. The females may start developing new eggs while still carrying eggs and may molt and start a new cycle within days of a hatch.

I went from a tank of 5 females to over a hundred baby shrimp in under a month.

levy · Post by **levy** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:44 am

OK, I think it's worth making the investment because shrimps are very rare in my area and there is a big demand for them.
Do adult shrimps get along with baby shrimps, or should I worry that the parents will eat the younglings? I'm thinking however of adding many jawa moss in the tank.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 3:31 pm

Most shrimp do not eat their young, cherry shrimp certainly do not. Do yourself and us a favor and read over the shrimp varieties pages and read the articles Mustafa has on shrimp. Also take advantage of the SEARCH feature. Once you've done that you'll be well prepared.

All of these questions have been asked & answered over & over again. Some folks get a little testy if you don't do that first.

levy · Post by **levy** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:52 pm

OK I will try to do that! And I apologise to those affended because I have a Dial-up connection and don't afford to spend much time on searching the forum. I will read the articles dough

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 5:13 pm

Glad to help. Dowload the articles and read them off line. They are well worth having. You can use the "save as" option on your browser and save it as a Web Archive *.mht file to your drive where you can read it any time you want. You can open it with your browser off line.